


Shoulda Woulda Coulda

by Walutahanga



Series: The Arrow of the Inland Sea [1]
Category: A Fisherman of the Inland Sea - Ursula K. Le Guin (Short Story), Arrow (TV 2012), The Birthday of the World and Other Stories - Ursula K. Le Guin
Genre: 5 Things, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Crossover, Developing Relationship, F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, Other, Polyamorous Character, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, Relationship Negotiation, Sedoretu, Unhappy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-29
Updated: 2015-01-29
Packaged: 2018-03-09 14:04:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3252527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Walutahanga/pseuds/Walutahanga
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five sedoretu Oliver could have ended up in, but didn't. Fusion with Ursula K. Le Guin's 'Fisherman of the Inland Sea'.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shoulda Woulda Coulda

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Shoulda Woulda Coulda](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11607663) by [KisVani](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KisVani/pseuds/KisVani)



> An Arrow fusion with Ursula K Le Guin's story "A Fisherman of the Inland Sea", obviously. If you're unfamiliar with that universe, details can be found here: http://fanlore.org/wiki/Sedoretu
> 
> To give a brief summary, in this world marriages are made up of four people; two men and two women. There must be one man and one woman of the Evening moiety, and one man and one woman of the Morning moiety. Members are expected to form sexual relationships with those of the opposite moiety while maintaining a platonic relationship with the person of their own moiety.
> 
> The title is from a song by Beverly Knight.

Oliver had always assumed that he and Tommy would marry each other.

He was Morning, Tommy was Evening, they knew with the same people, shared the same interests, had the same desperate desire to avoid becoming their parents. They’d even made a pact when they were kids. They’d have all the fun they wanted in their twenties, then once they both got tired of screwing around, they’d settle down together with whatever women they found to complete the moiety.

Laurel had ruined it by coming along years ahead of schedule. Oliver was still young with plenty of drinking and partying left in him, but Tommy was clearly settling down with the Morning woman. He’d even begun making non-too-subtle hints about Oliver and him dating seriously, instead of just screwing around occasionally out of boredom or lust.

“I mean, I know we didn’t expect this to happen now, but sometimes things just happen, you know. You’ve got to seize the moment...”

Moira and Robert didn't hide how much they liked the idea. Neither did Tommy or Laurel’s families. Oliver could practically _feel_ the noose closing in.

That was when he hit on the idea of asking Laurel’s sister to run away with him. Sara wasn’t Morning moiety, of course – she was the daughter of Laurel’s mother’s deceased Evening wife – but she was the perfect defence against this marriage business. She couldn’t enter the same sedoretu as Laurel, so they couldn’t be pressured into reconciling the two halves, and if Sara started taking it too seriously, Oliver could quickly bow out by ‘not wanting to get between sisters’. It was foolproof.

Years later, it occurred to him that if he’d sucked it up and tried to form a meaningful relationship with Tommy and Laurel, he might be married by now.

Or maybe not. The old him was still an idiot. 

* * *

It was hard to say if Oliver had been in love with Slade.

The Evening man still had the power to evoke strong emotion, good and bad, but Oliver wasn’t sure that counted as love. He’d _needed_ Slade certainly, for survival and simple human contact.  Whether admiration and lust had become something more was difficult to determine.

Slade had made his own feelings clear. Or so Oliver had thought at the time.

“Don’t get attached,” he’d growled as Oliver eagerly unbuttoned his shirt the first time. “This changes nothing. I’ll still kill you if it looks like you’re more trouble than you’re worth.”

Oliver had rolled his eyes and shoved cloth aside to get his hands on the warm tanned skin and rippling muscle underneath. 

“Yes, but in the meantime I’m horny, and I’m pretty sure that’s not a gun in your pocket either.”

(As it turned out, it _was_ a gun, but at least one part of Slade was still happy to see Oliver regardless).

Shado had changed everything, just as Laurel had before her.

Of the Morning moiety, she naturally settled into a close friendship with Oliver that reminded him of Thea, if Thea were older and wiser and capable of kicking his ass. Slade kept his distance, but Oliver saw him looking at Shado sometimes when she wasn’t looking and knew.

“Slade likes you,” he blurted out to Shado one day in the woods 

“I know,” she said, correcting his grip on the bow.

“So what are you going to do about it?”

“Who says I’m going to do anything about it?”

The mischievous curve of her mouth made him stare, then laugh. He had the feeling Shado knew _exactly_ what she was doing with Slade, and would lead the man one hell of a chase. This promised to be entertaining.

Later Oliver wondered if Slade had been lying about the ‘no attachments’ rule. That perhaps the Evening man had put more importance on the three of them than he ever admitted. A sedoretu, even an informal partial one, was a sacred trust, and to break it a terrible betrayal.

It would be easier if Oliver could say for certain that Slade had read too much into it. But that time on the island was a strange one, and the line between need and love a blurry, uncertain thing. Try as he might, he could never recall what he had or hadn’t promised. 

* * *

When Sara came back, Oliver discovered he still had feelings for her.

She knew more about him than arguably any other woman alive. She knew about his life as the vigilante and could happily keep up. They shared the same goals, the same struggles, the same darkness.  They could have made a wonderful marriage.

Too bad Sara’s Morning wife hated his guts. He never got over the vague suspicion Nyssa wanted to kill him. 

* * *

Oliver was aware that Thea’s Evening boyfriend wanted him.

It was particularly obvious on the Mirakuru, when Roy’s emotional control was all over the place. Oliver kindly ignored it, knowing from experience how mortifying an un-reciprocated attraction could be.

“Roy thinks you’re hot,” Thea told him casually one day over lunch. In the back of his mind, Oliver wondered if this was how Shado felt when he told her about Slade’s feelings. 

“Yeah, I know.”

“You going to do anything about it?”

Oliver paused and studied Thea more carefully. It wasn’t unknown for a brother and sister of the same moiety to enter sedoretu together, sharing a husband and wife. Nowadays it was rarer, but by no means forbidden.

“Do you _want_ me to do anything about it?” He said.

“I don’t know.” Thea shrugged, eats a chip. “I’m not _un_ -opposed to it, I guess. Besides, if you’re doing the same thing Mum might get off my back about going steady with a guy from the Glades.”

“That’s a terrible reason to date someone,” Oliver said, but he was smiling because he could tell Thea wasn’t serious.

“No, duh. But thanks for letting Roy down easy. I don’t think he’s had a lot of that in his life.”

“Any time.” 

* * *

Felicity made him smile from the start. She wasn’t his normal sort of Evening woman – he tended to go for the strong, occasionally violent type – but something about her just made him let his guard down.

It was a gradual, easy fall into love and he was there before he realised it. Like Tommy had once told him, sometimes these things just happen, and you’ve got to seize the moment.

“I don’t know any Morning women,” she blurted out after their first kiss. “And I only know one Evening Man who might be your type, but you two kind of hate each other at the moment and the vigilante hobby might make things even more weird… I’m babbling, aren’t I. My point is, building this sedoretu might take a while.”

He laughed and pressed an affectionate kiss to her forehead.

“There’s five billion people out there,” he said. “I’m sure at least two of them will meet our standards. I don’t mind taking our time to find them.” 

(As it turned out, Oliver was wrong. He barely had any time left. A few months later Ra’s Al Ghul kicked him off a cliff and his last regretful thought was of her.)

**Author's Note:**

> Um... I'm sorry? Canon did it, not me, I swear. Stupid mid-season break.


End file.
